Mu-Tao Wang

Isometric embeddings into the Minkowski space and new quasi-local mass

The definition of quasi-local mass for a bounded space-like region Ω in space-time is essential in several major unsettled problems in general relativity. The quasi-local mass is expected to be a type of flux integral on the boundary two-surface

On graphic Bernstein type results in higher codimension

{\Sigma=\partial \Omega}

Hamiltonian stationary cones and self-similar solutions in higher dimension

and should be independent of whichever space-like region

Minimizing properties of critical points of quasi-local energy

{\Sigma}

Evaluating Quasilocal Energy and Solving Optimal Embedding Equation at Null Infinity

bounds. An important idea which is related to the Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity is to consider a reference surface in a flat ambient space with the same first fundamental form and derive the quasi-local mass from the difference of the extrinsic geometries. This approach has been taken by Brown-York [4,5] and Liu-Yau [16,17] (see also related works [3,6,9,12,14,15,28,32]) to define such notions using the isometric embedding theorem into the Euclidean three space. However, there exist surfaces in the Minkowski space whose quasilocal mass is strictly positive [19]. It appears that the momentum information needs to be accounted for to reconcile the difference. In order to fully capture this information, we use isometric embeddings into the Minkowski space as references. In this article, we first prove an existence and uniqueness theorem for such isometric embeddings. We then solve the boundary value problem for Jang’s [13] equation as a procedure to recognize such a surface in the Minkowski space. In doing so, we discover a new expression of quasi-local mass for a large class of “admissible” surfaces (see Theorem A and Remark 1.1). The new mass is positive when the ambient space-time satisfies the dominant energy condition and vanishes on surfaces in the Minkowski space. It also has the nice asymptotic behavior at spatial infinity and null infinity. Some of these results were announced in [29].

Limit of Quasilocal Mass at Spatial Infinity

There have been many attempts to define the notion of quasilocal mass for a spacelike two surface in spacetime by the Hamilton-Jacobi analysis. The essential difficulty in this approach is to identify the right choice of the background configuration to be subtracted from the physical Hamiltonian. Quasilocal mass should be non-negative for surfaces in general spacetime and zero for surfaces in flat spacetime. In this Letter, we propose a new definition of gauge-independent quasilocal mass and prove that it has the desired properties.